Georgia Brown achieved recognition in a London production of The Threepenny Opera before she became a star in Oliver!, so it is appropriate that for her first solo album she chooses to devote herself to the songs of Kurt Weill, among them a largely German-language reading of "Mack the Knife." Unlike other Weill interpreters,
Brown really makes no distinction between the German Weill and the American Weill, equally happy to sing "Pirate Jenny" and "Surabaya Johnny" (the latter also in German) on the one hand and "September Song" and "Speak Low" on the other. But when she isn't singing songs from Weill's Berlin phase in German, she is doing so with a distinct German accent, giving them a sense of character. She is abetted by arranger/conductor Ian Fraser, who comes up with varied settings for the songs, ranging from orchestral washes to small jazz ensembles, sometimes to comment on the subject matter. Notably, his big-band swing arrangement of "Alabama Song" gives the song an appropriate swagger.
Brown proves herself an able Weill singer who can balance the pointed words of
Bertolt Brecht in the earlier material with the more romantic and wistful sentiments of Weill's Broadway collaborators. (The album was released in the U.S. on the Decca subsidiary London Records under the title Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill.) ~ William Ruhlmann